Caring is cheep-er than you think

THRIFTY shoppers are being urged not to forget animal welfare when they fill their trolleys.

Shoppers are being urged not to forget animal welfare when they fill their trolleys []

As families juggle household budgets there are fears that free range, organic and higher welfare labels, such as the RSPCA’s Freedom Food, could be left on the shelves.

Yet a survey today shows that choosing meat from animals reared under better farming conditions costs far less than 70 per cent of us believe.

A basket containing chicken, sausages and fish cost just £5 more where most thought it would be £15.

The survey, at the start of Farm Animal Week, also revealed that 38 per cent of adults would give up a treat, such as a bottle of wine, to spend the money on higher welfare food. The celebrity chef Antony Worrall Thompson said: “A higher welfare chicken can cost just 86p more, a small price to pay for good animal welfare.”

Freedom Food spokesman Liam Kurzeja said: “Many of us have stopped buying eggs from battery hens. We would like people to look for the higher welfare logo on pork, chicken and salmon.”